Mitch Hawker's coaster poll has been released. This is widely considered to be the best and most accurate coaster poll, and anyone can vote in it unlike the Golden Ticket Awards. Participation is encouraged because the more turn out, the more "accurate" the results among the current coaster community.
There are a few different ways to do this poll. One would be using The Coaster Fanatics Helper which is a simple check-list wizard which generates your ballot already formatted.
You can also do your ballot the traditional way by downloading the ballot, and copy/pasting into a word document and setting it up manually. This way takes a bit more time and is a little bit harder because it's very important to not mess with the formatting.
There are various ways to rank your favorite and not so favorite coasters, probably best covered in Robb Alvey's Guide.
Some simple instructions to do it the traditional way:
Start by copying the ballot into a word document and cutting out all the coasters you HAVE NOT ridden. This will leave you with a clean ballot of everything you've ridden.
The poll is grouped like this: The Voyage Holiday World IN,n,n,0
The first n indicates you riding it at all. By cutting out everything you haven't ridden, you should change all of the first ns to a y, indicating that you have ridden.
The Voyage Holiday World IN,y,n,0
Second n is if you've ridden this year. If not, leave it alone. If so, change to a y.
The Voyage Holiday World IN,y,y,0
The number is simply rank. I like to rank based on the best ride the coaster has ever given me.
The Voyage Holiday World IN,y,y,3
the Favorite Steel Coaster Any Park Anywhere **,y,y,3 indicates how your favorite steel coaster stands up to your favorite wood. By me putting a 3, it means that I as much as my third favorite steel. However your favorite wood should still be ranked with a 1.
The ranking of sensations are pretty straight forward; just change the ns to ys rank in what order you like best.
Now get voting!